Friends of the Earth today raised concerns about the possibility of gold mining occurring within water supplies that supply Melbournians with drinking water. For background on this issue also see: www.baddevelopers.green.net.au

They have done so by putting public transport under the control of efficient, accountable public agencies, while Melbourne is a privatised, unaccountable, uncoordinated mess.

But Melbourne's public transport can be taken back into public control modelled on the very best in the world, if the state government does not extend or renew the rail and tram franchises by the 30th November 2007. If the government so chooses by the 2007 deadline, Melbourne's trains and trams will revert to public ownership without the need to compensate the private operators.

The new report from Friends of the Earth highlights how many people in the Global South are already experiencing devastating impacts of climate change with impacts upon food security, water security, health and livelihoods. Climate change is therefore creating a global human rights crisis which will be much worse without deep and immediate reductions in emissions. Download the publication here

On a positive side, the new facility will reduce PaperlinX's need for chlorine bleaching, with almost no dioxin outputs into the Latrobe River and Bass Strait occurring after the new facility is constructed.

Craig Knowles has a plan for Australia's greatest river. It's a compromised plan, he admits, but trade-offs have to be made; river health balanced with the demands of irrigated agriculture. Problem is, no one has spelt out what the plan will actually do for the river. With Tony Burke poised to clinch the deal with $10 billion of public money, we deserve to know what we're paying for.

The Coorong, at the end of the Murray in South Australia, is etched in the collective memories of Australians thanks to the heart-felt story of Storm Boy and his pelican. The Coorong is also the largest Ramsar-listed wetland in the Southern Hemisphere, and is one of 16 Ramsar sites in the Murray Darling Basin, as many as half of which are at risk of losing their status if the draft Basin Plan is implemented as is.This week, parties to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands are meeting in Romania, and we've sent them our report highlighting just how damaging only 2750GL of water will be to these precious ecosystems.

Following summer surveys of Nyah Vinifera Park, in partnership with the Wadi Wadi community and ecologists at Australian Ecosystems, an indepth report of the flora of Nyah Vinifera Park has shown a large number of threatened or previously unrecorded native flora in this new Red Gum Park. Read the recently completed full ecological report here or read more for report highlights.

Friends of the Earth acknowledge that we meet and work on the land of the Wurundjeri people and that sovereignty of the land of the Kulin Nation were never ceded. We pay respect to their Elders, past and present, and acknowledge the pivotal role that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people continue to play within the Australian community.